The Edi ' - The Leveson Inquiry

also by their contributors, such as agencies. That responsibility is
underlined here. Pictures and stories from freelance contributors
obtained by harassment would not comply with the Code,
If a complaint arose, the PCC would expect an editor to show how
reasonable care had been taken to ensure that such material
complied with the Code, Extra checks might be advisable, for
example, when taking potenfially sensitive mataria] from previously
untried sources, such as ’citizen journalists’.
For Distribution to CPs
The public Jntereat; It would be possible to claim there degree oi
harassment -- such as persistent questioning and pursuit -- is
necessary n the oublic interest. In such cases, the Comm sslon
would normally expect that the harassment was not dlspmpertienato
to the public interest involved.
A magazine that published pictures of Prince William on an
adventure break in South America claimed they were in the public
interest as they showed him being groomed for kingship. The PCC
rejected any notion that the public interest was served. ~fs,~-~;.~f:~
ournalism ~s an occupation conducted on the front line of life and,
~,~ too often, of death. But while tragedy and suffering may go with
the journalistic territory, insensitivity for its victims should not. The
Code’s stoctures on intrusion into grief or shock are designed to
protect those victims at their most vulnerable moments.
Newspapers have e job to do at such times and most do it well.
It is a myth that approaches by the press are mnerentty intrusive.
Reporters making inquiries sensitively are often welcomed by the
bereaved who see an obituary or story as a final public memoria
and they wou,d prefer the facts to be given first-hand,
Also, as deaths ere a matter of public record, the information is
in the public domain and newspapers nave e right to publish. Again,
a balance has to be struck The key as expressed by the Code. lies
~n making mqulnes with sympefhy and discretion and in publishing
sensitively,
That does not mean newspapers should not publish sensitive
material, it means that they should not do so insensitively. Nor does
it amount to a ban on covenng tragic stories unless a parties
consent, as the PCC made clear in an adjudication in 2005 when it
gave examples of some of the elements likely to constitute a tack of
sensitivity in publication. They were:
The use of gratuitously gory information in pictures or stories at
a time of grief,
Unnecessarily Mdiculthg the menner of death;
. Pubfishing a picture showing the subject engaged in obviously
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